National Peace Conference
Southeast Asia: Conflict Without Borders

Introduction

Southeast Asia has had a tumultuous history, having experienced numerous armed conflicts post World War II and during the Cold War, it was even dubbed as the “Balkan of Asia” by security pundits and conflict scholars as it became the battle ground of opposing global ideologies. To many, the US-Vietnam war (1955-1975) and the Indo-China wars (1946-1991) are still within living memory. Today, Southeast Asia is far from what it was during those turbulent days. The establishment of ASEAN paved the way for a more stable and prosperous region.

However, it is still home to several unresolved conflicts and disputes in multiple countries, the most recent being the Myanmar 2021 military coup which is bringing the country to the verge of an all-out civil war. The neighbouring countries are seeing an exodus of people fleeing the violence in Myanmar, on-top of those fleeing the situation in Rakhine state which is also in Myanmar. There is also the on-going Southern Thai conflict and parts of Southern Philippine which continue to be a problem. This does not include the unsettled territorial and maritime claims between countries that have also led to violent skirmishes as well as the on-going USChina rivalry in the South China sea.

While most of these conflicts are intrastate conflicts, physically confined within the conflicting country, the humanitarian fall-out of these conflicts cut across territorial boundaries as the exodus of refugees fleeing violence, running to neighbouring countries for safety.

Malaysia, apart from being a destination of more than 3 million migrant workers from South and Southeast Asia, has also become the destination country for refugees and asylum seekers within the region and also as far as the Middle East. Malaysia as a country is very much affected by these especially in terms of human movement and migration and it is not a new problem. Malaysia is second to Thailand, with the highest number of refugees and asylum seekers. Our relatively stable and strong economy and diverse, multi-ethnic and multilingual demographic makes us an appealing place for refuge. One of the most prominent refugee and asylum settlements that Malaysia has had goes back to the Vietnam war, with the arrival of the “boat people'' throughout the 1970s up until the 1990s, when the settlements were closed down as the last refugees were resettled to a third country.

ASEAN has always been very steadfast in adhering to its own policy of non-interference – seen as the pillar for the success of ASEAN thus far. When it comes to inter-state relations, ASEAN has been able to strengthen its institutional framework for solving problems and realizing its objectives, and to establish a firm foundation to facilitate and strengthen the process of community building. However, ASEAN has not yet proposed a framework for intrastate conflict that has regional spill-over effects.